Holy Disruption With Heather Schott | There's A Famine of the Word of God in the Church | With Cory Russle
YouTube videos, reels, TikToks, everything that we're devouring is actually going to become our judge. We bought into irrelevant Christianity that's good in theory, but not in good reality. God's gangster with this stuff. He scares me. He goes, I need more of the show. I need more money. I need more activities. I need more things. I need the next conference. No, you need, I can stand on stages, blow them up because God's love for people and yet never read the Bible and never be alone with them. The more you preach it and not do it, your heart gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And that's what makes it. What do you feel will prophetically happen if there is not an awakening in the body of Christ in their word and knowing their word? Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of Holy Disruption. I'm your host Heather Schott, and I have an incredible guest with me today. He has been so pivotal in pouring out spiritually into mercy culture. It is Corey Russell. Corey, this house loves you, Landon, and I love you. Every time that you come, you take us into a deeper place of intimacy with the Holy Spirit, which I know is a calling on your life. Thank you for being here with me today. I love you, Heather. I love you, Landon. I love mercy culture. And I feel so deeply connected to you guys. It's an honor to be here. We feel the same. We feel the same about you. I want to share just a few things because I feel like your ministry, as much as it has impacted us in this house, I want to make sure it's impacting others. So Corey, your passion is to awaken the church across the earth to the revelation of Jesus' intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Like I was just sharing, you walk in that. It's who you are. And then of course, the power of prayer. You've written nine different books. I'd encourage everybody out there if you want to grow in intimacy, which you should, because we should all know Him intimately, have an intimate relationship with Jesus. These books are a gift. They're a tool to take you to that place with the Holy Spirit. And then you've released six prayer albums, which I know there's so many spiritual sons and daughters that absolutely adore these prayer albums. This is something else that can train the body of Christ into going into deeper places of prayer, crying out to the Lord. And right now you are discipling through CoreyRussellOnline.com with what's called Road to Aramaus. Will you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, yeah. Road to Aramaus in Luke 24. Well, first off, Corey Russell Online, the Lord told me in 2018, teach him to pray. And I want you to go to the online space. So we started a journey in 2018, and here we are in 2024. We have around almost 50 courses now, over 250 hours of content.
And we're going after the Road to Aramaus course, which is a walk from Genesis to Revelation over three years. And so if anyone jumps in, they get all the previous courses as well as jumping in now. We want to train a generation in the Bible. Let's go. Which is the perfect transition into what we're talking about today. And on Holy Disruption, we are having disruptive conversations on purpose. In the past, other episodes, we have focused a lot on holding spiritual leaders, pastors, prophets accountable. There needs to be accountability in spiritual leaders, what's being taught, personal life, leadership. There needs to be it across the board. But I really want to primarily focus on pouring out and disrupting the body of Christ in this episode. And I think both you and I would agree that there is a famine in the Word of God, in the body of Christ. It is crazy what's happening in our nation right now. I say this in every episode. Y'all know it. I hope that your eyes are open so that you can see and you are aware that it is wickedness and lawlessness what's happening in our nation. But this is crazy. So many people, so many Christians have no idea where they're supposed to stand on this stuff because they don't know their Word. The Word of God is clear on biblical marriage, how we should be raising up and training our children on sexual immorality, on murder of the innocent, all of these things. But people are like, I don't know where to stand. I'm confused. I don't know how to vote. I don't know how to raise my kids in this stuff. And it is because of this famine in the body of Christ. I want to read a couple of facts because it's so evident that there is a lack of spiritual fruit and the spiritual fruit can't be there because we don't know our Word here. Listen to these facts. listening. Before the pandemic, 14% read the Bible daily. 14%. In 2021, it dropped to 10% read the Bible daily. Here's another study for you. You're like, maybe I can't get to it every single day, but I do during the week. 34% read the Bible once a week. 34%. Half or 50% read the Bible less than twice a year. In between the two extremes at 16%, we find those who read the Bible more than twice a year, but not on a weekly basis. Okay. One in five attenders say they never read the Bible. Church attenders. This is the problem, Corey. We can't spiritually lead our families, nevertheless, bring revival and reformation when we don't know the truth or what the Word of God says. Yeah. We're a biblically illiterate generation. Yes. We completely don't know what the Word of God says. And that's shocking to me because that was probably the greatest excuse for why we don't read the Bible is I don't have enough time. I'm busy. I got all the stuff
going on. Well, the Lord shut down the nation. We saw the nation shut down for a year. Yeah. And you see reading of the Bible go from 14% to 10%. To 10%. Which hits the very argument of, I don't have enough time. Absolutely. And yet when we have more time, I imagine you read the same statistics. I imagine Netflix went up 300%. 100%. I imagine social media went up 300%. Alcoholism, addiction. Alcoholism went up 300%. I imagine every one of those went up 300%, which means this, that when we do have time, we don't want to read the Word. We don't want to look at it because one, we haven't encountered the man on the other side of the pages. We haven't understand that there is a man whose name is truth, who is wanting to shape us and mark us. And we are sliding. It's directly connected. I like to connect Psalm 1 and 2, where it says, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. Walking, standing, sitting, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and it is law. He meditates day and night. So the answer to either, you're going to be in two conversations, the cultural conversation, the counsel of the ungodly, the seat of the path of sinners or the seat of the scornful. Are you going to be found in the conversation with delighting in the Word of God? And most of us have never broken through into delight, that it's boring, it's drudgery, and we're going through the motions and we haven't encountered the true source of life. And what does that, if we don't embrace that delight, this is what happened. Psalm 2 happens and it's nations raging, lawlessness, chaos, confusion, all the generation throwing off the bonds and the cords of God's authority. Because at the end of the day, the Word of God, it's God's rule. It's God's law. It's God's rule that brings governors around how you live, around who you marry, around your sexuality, around your ethics, your integrity, your character, your thought life. It brings government and we're living in an antichrist, lawless generation that wants no authority. And so, because we haven't submitted to the Word of God, we want to throw off, because that's what it says in Psalm 2, let us cast off their bonds and cords from us. The Word of God are bonds and cords to a generation that wants to do what we want to do. And that's the issue over the Word of God because it infringes. It's outdated. It's antiquated. That's not for this evolved generation who understands truth. You mentioned delight. We have to come back to a place of delight, yet we're so far away. What you said, the number one reason is I just don't have time. And that is, that's the number one reason why people use. Yet we saw, like you said, in the pandemic,
that's not the case. So why have we lost our delight in what most Christians will say is the most powerful book? They believe it is the words, it is the breath of God. If you ask a Christian, they will say, yes, I believe it is the breath of God. Yes, I believe it is powerful, yet they don't have a delight or a desire to devour it. Yeah. And I think that's the powerful phrase. I'm so glad you brought it back to delight because one, we have never broken through into a place of pleasure, of joy, and of delight in the Word of God. It was drudgery. it was something you had to do, and we read the Bible. When you're forced to read the Bible like you do a history book, or like an English book, or a good journal, or a good newspaper, it's not information only. It's the words coming from this man who is the word. And because we've never sat long enough with it, and we've checked off even our daily readings, we got to understand, because Jesus in John 5, he goes, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have life, but you're not willing to come to me. The words lead to a man. Come on. And that, the words lead to a man. He is the word. Who is the word. And because we've never broken through to encountering the man. Yeah. We're stuck with, okay, I know the verse, but it didn't change anything. At Mercy Culture Spiritual Leadership School, we recognize that leaders are everywhere, but spiritual leaders are developed. Spiritual leaders walk with God and know his voice. The heart of our school is to raise up reformers who are able to spiritually lead in any room they walk into. We do this through encounters, teaching and impartation, service, equipping, and activation. You can attend SLS in person or online. If you'd like more information, text SLS to 59090. So because we don't desire him first, we're not seeking him first. Why would we be consumed with his word when our number one desire isn't Jesus? And this is what happened in John 6. Jesus pulls out the flesh and blood teaching at his largest gathering. Eat my flesh, drink my blood. And they didn't understand. They thought he was talking cannibalism. And he goes, no, no, the words that I speak to you are spirit and life. The point is you don't understand my speech and it offends you. And it says that many left him from that hour. And then he looked at the disciples and he says, Hey, you guys want to leave too? And what did Peter say? Lord, where else are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. Yeah. It also, it reminds me of Matthew 13, when the disciples are coming to ask Jesus, why do you speak in parables? And he says, whoever has will be given more. And he who will have has an abundance, but whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. This is why I
speak in parables. Though seeing, they do not see. Though hearing, obviously is going back to Isaiah. Though hearing, they do not hear or understand in them. The prophecy of Isaiah is a fulfilled. You will be ever hearing, but never understanding. You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving for this people's heart has grown callous. They hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Verse 16, but blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. I truly believe what we are just saying that Jesus wants us to seek after him. The parables were easy for the hungry. They were difficult for the self-serving. They didn't want to have to seek after him. They didn't want to choose him and his kingdom first. And so it was, it was this confusion of what are you saying and why are you saying it in such a confusing way for us to understand? And he's like, no, I'm after all of you, not a moment, not just an encounter. I want to encounter you forever. I want every single part of you. And it's so interesting when it says whoever has will be given more and he will have abundance. Yeah. But whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. And this is so offensive to people because they get full on one moment of revelation and they're not hungry again tomorrow for more of him and hungry tomorrow again for more of his word. Jesus spoke in such a way to expose the motives by which people were coming to him. They were all coming with lots of different motives and reasons for coming. And so he spoke to them in such a way that would expose and reveal those things while at the same time offer the bread to the hungry ones. He offering the bread and they couldn't see it because he was speaking to them at a level to expose the religiosity, the reason of why they were following him. And I believe that God is issuing an invitation to a generation. Come to me, come and feed on me. Come on, come and feed on my words on the revelation of my heart. Because words, think about why we talk to one another. Words are the manifestation of hidden realities. I feel things and I say it. I think things and I say it. Words give definition. to what's on the inside. God's Word is the manifestation of what's on the inside of him and a door for us to come back to him. So it all comes from him and to him through the Word. And I believe God is wanting to deliver a generation of boredom. He's wanting to deliver a generation from, because I'm telling you, there is no show that I've ever sat at at the end of watching and on the edge of my bed going, Oh my goodness, I've never felt that before. No, I've got to watch the next show. And that's not going to answer it. And the next show doesn't answer it. But yet one
encounter, one kiss, one encounter of the Word of God leaves you absolutely undone and then carves out more space to be filled by his words. We need a revival in the Bible. We need a revival. We need a revival from his Word that people will begin to hunger. And I think what you're tapping into right now is the noise of life is what people don't know how. They don't know how to consecrate themselves and set themselves apart from everything that is taking place in our lives that keeps us in the constant state of not just, I need more of the show. I need more money. I need more activities. I need more things. I need the next conference. No, you need him. Like we need the bridegroom. We need a bride that would return and would begin to cry out, Maranatha, would you come? Come Lord Jesus. Like even now, I pray that those that are listening, that there would be a stirring of a hunger and what voids you have not been able to fill with stuff, with things, with success, with materialistic, with all of this stuff that you've tried to fill voids. We're telling you today that Jesus and his Word, it will fill every single void. He is the living water that quenches that thirst, but yet brings you back over and over for more that you're never leaving thirsty. You know, what's interesting is in this scripture and you brought up Amos, but it's this word here. And in verse, you know what, I'm gonna actually share another verse that's very similar. It's Revelations 3, one through three. And this is a warning of what we're talking about right now, because what I'm believing that in this podcast, Corey, is that there's gonna be a shift. There's gonna be a shift in those that listen and what they once hungered for would die and that they would begin to hunger for more of Jesus. And here's the warning that I wanna read to everybody listening. Revelations 3, one through three says, these are the words of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds. You have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of my God. Verse three, remember then what you have received and heard. What? It's talking about scripture, the words of the Lord. Remember the words of the Lord, which you have received and what you have heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you. Verse six, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. This word here in the Greek is the word Akuo, which doesn't just mean to hear, Corey, but it means God's voice, which prompts him to birth faith within. We know that scripture says that faith without action is dead, which means when we hear, when we hear the words of the Lord, we should act. And I think one
of the biggest problems is that when we don't know his words, this is what the body of Christ doesn't understand this term anymore is we don't know how to heed to his words. So it's another word for to hear is to heed. And so, because we don't know his word, we have no idea how to heed to his instructions or his words. And here's the definition of this, the Greek word to heed. It means to perceive, receive, discern, to build upon. Here's the action that it's talking about in scripture, to hold fast, to become, you're going to love this one, a ringing cry, to be prudent, to seize, to set one's mind to, to stay awake. Scripture is literally saying that this word to heed to his word is the very way that we stay awake. And I think many people believe that they're awake as Christians because they're aware of what's. happening or they're aware of some things in the word of God. And to be aware is not to be awake. It is living according to his word that keeps us awake in an hour that who knows when, but I believe he's going to return soon. And he is looking for a church that is waiting, that is ready, and that is awake. And it happens through his word. This is phenomenal. I keep thinking about Mary of Bethany in Luke 10 39. There's only one phrase, she had a sister called Mary who sat at his feet and heard his word. That's what it says. Come on. So Mary doesn't say anything. She makes a decision. Come on. And what was battling with Martha? Distraction, worry, anxiety, busyness, serving all around. And I think it's key because there's a lot of believers that are in the church around Jesus, but who aren't hearing Jesus. And I think it's found in the posture at his feet. I think it's a posture of receiving because there is a filling that the word of God does. You don't read the Bible like you do a history book. It's not. It's not me standing over the Bible. It's the Bible standing over me and I'm a receiver. I'm a hearer and I'm letting those words touch a prepared plowed ground, which I think is amazing with Matthew 13. The good soil, you've got these four soils and you've got this good soil that if the word of God lands on prepared hearts, it produces 30, 60, a hundred fold, which means that the word of God, and for lack of better terms, the seed of the word of God, it impregnates you. Faith is awakened. It's conceived. It sparks. It's that spark of divine life where you see something in God and you receive it. And then there's that maturation, that conception and that embryo stage and that
development of the word of God on the inside of you. And we need more believers who are pregnant with the word of God and aren't just hearing it and not just, well, I know where it's all going down, brother. I don't care about that religious knowing a couple of Bible verses. I'm saying who's pregnant with faith, who's pregnant with the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. That's how faith is sparked and awakened and, or we'll get into unbelief. And so I think Mary's posture of letting his words go to her deep and letting him fight her battles for him, because I've found, I don't know about you. I've found that the devil, or I don't know who it is. I can fill up Corey Russell ministries and travel all over the earth. I can have 52 weekends. I can be in every place popping and gopping. I can blow up stages, but I'll tell you, and the devil doesn't give me too much warfare, a couple of delays on planes, but not much. Um, I'll tell you what I get war over a time and place at his feet. Come on. Beginning to a time and place at his feet with an open Bible. That's right. And beginning to do all the distractions. Nobody that's ever called me, calls me. Nobody that's ever texted me, texted me. No emergency that's ever broken out, breaks out. Why? Because the devil is more intimidated by a Saint on their knees. A hundred percent. Than busy people running around. A hundred percent. That's the war right there. I think it's so important that you bring this up because a lot of people, they have believed the lie of the enemy, that they are too busy, not realizing the spiritual resistance, the spiritual attack. That's what the devil wars over. Intimacy. Yes. Their daily encounters with the Lord and with his word, which again is the, the parable of the sower. And I, I love the word of God. I love the word of God. I love reading the word of God. I feel like I become alive as I'm reading. It says it better than
what I can say it. So of course I have the scripture here and I just, I just want to share this like verse one. It says that same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. Verse two, such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down while all the people stood on the shore. This meant that Jesus saved this message for the multitudes. He said, this is one, all of you, the multitudes that have gathered around me. You need to be aware of the soil of your heart. You need to be aware of the words that I'm about to impart into you more than most likely isn't the good ground, Corey, that you were just talking about because three out of the four that he goes to explain is not good ground. And the first one are the, is the word that is sown along the path where what the demons or, or the prince of the air, right? The birds come down and begin to snatch the seed. Yes. This pathway you think of hard dirt or rock means there was not a softness. And I think that there's so many in the body of Christ that fit in one of these soils that have found themselves bitter, that have stayed in unforgiveness, that have been angry for whatever reasons. They have stayed in this place of spiritual immaturity, not even knowing that their frustrations, hurts, pains, bitterness is keeping them from Jesus sowing into the soil of their lives. It cannot take root. It cannot bear root in a stony heart. And that's the next part of the parable is the stony ground where there could not find any roots because of the stones that were around. And so many of us have given ear to what you were talking about earlier, culture around us. Yes. Offended a people around us. And we have given more attention to friends, news, media, social media than to God's word. It's the counsel of the ungodly. Yes. The counsel of the ungodly, what you were talking about, that is shaping more Christians than the word of God. Yes.
And here you have Jesus that is trying to sow his truth into our hearts. And we're scrolling. Yes. And we're listening to offense around us. We're listening to divisive witchcraft media around us that's sowing and shaping this culture more than the word of God is. And then obviously the third parable, which you know what, I think most Christians fall into that place. The place of the stony ground is the hypocritical soil because it says that it was received with joy. Yes. So this is the people that run into church. They got everything all. They looked the part. I've been going to church forever. I had so much joy, pastor, over that word that she brought. It was so awesome. You answered the altar call and the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one, because you never stewarded the words of the Lord. That's it. You become obsessed with a conference, with the service, with the next thing, instead of what you said at the feet of Jesus in his word, devouring the word so that God, and not just devouring his word, but then taking sermons that pastors pray into, hear from God over probably spiritually attacked all week long. You're bringing words, Corey, all over the world. And I wonder, okay, I was an evangelist for years and I traveled. And we could feel when we would leave a place, we would pour ourselves out and wonder where any of those words picked up and stewarded. Because it was this feeling of what's the next service? What's the next high moment?
What's the next altar call? Instead of, okay, this man, this woman, the Holy Spirit brought these words from God. Now how do I rest in this place? How do I steward? How do I become accountable to the word of God? How do I let community around me that's going to hold me accountable to the words that were just spoken? I don't see this. And this is where we don't know how to heed to his word and to his instruction. Yeah. I think this is why we need an awakening in the Bible. We need a new delight. We need Bible studies. We need discipleship. We need to get delivered from just conference highs and begin to feed on the word of God to nurture that word and let the word do its work in you. Hebrews 4. I mean, we're just, it's just always new. Hey, did you hear that message? You need to get that message. Can I get another prophetic word? Exactly. I want another prophetic word. Did you steward the last one? And so we're just devouring information. And yet I believe we're more accountable than ever. The messages we're hearing, Jesus told Sodom, I mean, Jesus told, he said that the signs and the wonders and the messages were done in Sodom. They had repented a long time ago. Wherever there's higher availability, there's higher accountability.
And so where there's, when there's, when there's more messages and all of that, and we are just connoisseurs of messages, podcasts, YouTube videos, reels, Tik Toks, everything that we're devouring is actually going to become our judge if we, if we don't steward it and just move on to the next place and just say, well, what's the next thing that's being said? We're not slow. We're a fast paced culture who is into devouring consumerism. It's humanistic. It's consume, consume, consume, consume. And it never, but, but, but, but that's just fallen off the ground of our heart to take the word of God. We've got to slow down. There's gotta be an. element of where we fight for these daily encounters, which is requiring intentionality and slowing down for you to slow down, which means you're not going to be productive. It's not about your productivity right now. It's about the mark of his word on your heart and you setting in your boredom, you setting in your distractions, you setting in your attention problems, you setting and all the frustrations of, I don't know what to do. I don't understand it. And I like to say that I believe to the hungry ones, he will begin to release revelation blessed are your eyes for the things they've seen. And so, yeah, I think that he's, he's calling us, but I think we need to see a complete different culture released in the church that is more at the feet. We've got to slow down our lives. It's going to require a slowdown. We will not get this at a McDonald's drive-thru. We will not get this by a fire tunnel. You're not going to get this by a, uh, by, by just hearing, just because I heard something don't mean I heard something just because I heard something don't mean I heard something I read.
Yes. And there is a process of the word moving from here to here. And then the word of God becomes a sword, a scalpel that divides soul from truth that discerns the thoughts and the intents of the heart. We're just not a people that are into this pace that allows the word of God to go deeper. That's why we're dealing with superficiality, plastic, and shallow Christianity. It's true. I think it's Timothy that says, heed to the words for yourself first, and then as a teacher. And the words that we have to get back to a place that we desire the word of God to hold us accountable, to shape us, to be a refining fire that begins to produce a holiness out of us, that begins to confront that which is not godly, that which doesn't please him. You know, when you said you were talking about this consumership and the worship really of self. Yes. And I'm so disheartened. And I know I said it's going to be primarily for the body of Christ, and this is for the body of Christ. But so many spiritual leaders, what they put out on social media is their best workout programs, their smoothie programs, their vitamins, their makeup, their fashion, all of these things. I'm not saying that these things are bad. I'm saying these can be fun things. These are great things to take care of your health, to be healthy. But when we have spiritual leaders that are discipling more of the flesh of a man than the spirit of a man, that when we have Christians that their number one priority and what they're most excited about the next morning is to get their best workouts, their best vitamins, their best smoothie to fit in the best clothes, to make the best IG stories on all of it the next morning, and they haven't sat and just soaked in their word and worship, and they don't have time for it because that's not what we see spiritual leaders making cool on Instagram, then how are we shaping?
How are we making ready the bride of Christ for the return of the bridegroom? I believe there's going to be judgment on both. Absolutely. We cannot be, and this is a full circle, we cannot be awake and ready. I think scripture even says it's like there's so much good for the exercise and the physical ability of the outside. There's a little benefit, little profit. There's a little benefit and a little profit. Oh, but how much more for our soul and our spirit needs the presence, needs the words of God, and needs a move of God in us personally, needs personal reformation for crooked ways to be made straight, and that is only for truth to begin to invade dark areas that are within us, which means we have to allow exposure. What you just brought up too is an indictment on our leaders in this hour, which is for about first 10 to 15 years, you are hungering for God, you are doing all those things, and then you get breakthrough, you encounter God, gives you messages, you preach them on stages, and then along the way, you begin to operate solely in your gift, and you get away from the simplicity and purity of intimacy, where it wasn't about a message. It wasn't about reading my Bible to get a message to say to others, but building like the wise virgin, extra vessels that had nothing to do with your ministry, but had to do with your overflowing heart, because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speak. And I think that God is calling leaders in this hour to long and loving meditation on the word. And that's what we can get. I can get a breakthrough 10 years ago, and because of a gift, I can fool everybody for the next 50 years. I can stand on stages, blow them up, because God's love for people, and yet never read the Bible and never be alone with them. And we have the most gifted.
I understand it. I understand the warfare and the understanding. I can move in a gift and God will always move. But that does not equate to tenderness and a flowing heart when I read the word of God, and to a delight when I read the word of God. And because, and God's gangster with this stuff. He scares me. He scares me. He goes, go for it. How's that working? And the more you preach it and not do it, your heart gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and that's what makes hypocrites. It is. And then all you can talk about are your smoothies. And you can talk about your designer clothes. There's no depth. And you can talk about everything else because you don't, and there's nothing flowing out of you. So when the storms come. That's what's flowing out of your heart. Yeah, when the storms come, there is no root. You're wiped out. There's a lot of people that are wiped out every political season. Yes. It's like, oh, this is Duma. I don't know.
I'm offended. Now I'm hurt. I'm, oh, but you were thriving, but you weren't rooted. That's right. You weren't planted in his word, in his house, in a spirit-filled house and in theologically correct teaching. You know, the word of God also calls the word a sword. Yes, Hebrews 4. And a sword is a weapon. And we have a weak, cowardly church right now. And they're not using the greatest weapon outside of the Holy Spirit, but the word, which we probably won't even have time to get in there because so much of the church is not operating in the gifts of the spirit because they don't know the word. And so we don't operate on what the word says, right? But they're not using the greatest weapon he gave us, not realizing it's a sword. Yes. What does the body of Christ, what would you say to just begin to encourage people that are listening right now to pick up that sword? Yeah. It's time to fight. Yeah. It's time to fight.
It's not just being Mary setting at his feet, but it's letting that sword go to the depths of your heart. Let it do its work in you. Divide soul from spirit. Discern the thoughts and the intents of your heart unto it becoming in your hand. How did Jesus fight the devil in the wilderness? Yeah. With the word. It is written. Come on. No, no. It is written. It is written. The devil left him. Yeah. And we are getting riddled and destroyed. And I understand it. And I sympathize, but the levels of anxiety, fear, mental illness, the war in our souls, the oppression, the heaviness, the addiction, the bondage that's waiting on us. And it's because no one is using the sword of the spirit. Come on. Jesus gave us two offensive weapons, praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and the sword of the spirit. And it's because the word of God isn't coming out of us. We don't know how to fight. We bought into a domesticated, impotent, inoculate,
irrelevant Christianity that's good in theory, but not in good reality. We don't know how to break funk off of us. We don't know how to break oppression off of our own souls. And so that's another reason why we keep running to the next guide. Anointed pastor, lay hands on me. And God says, you have an anointing within you and you have the word of God within you. Come on. We've got to train a generation how to declare. It is written. Yes. It is written. Come on. Man doesn't live by bread alone. That's how Jesus fought the devil. The devil left him alone, it says, until a more opportune time. Guess how long that was? Three and a half years later. We'll get a breakthrough on Saturday. The devil says, I'll see you on Tuesday. That's right. It's because the devil had never heard a man speak God's word like this. Come on. It came out of Jesus like a sword, cutting off the lies. So many people live in tormenting thoughts. I'm ugly, I'm undesirable, I'll never make it.
Live under a spirit of death, live under a spirit. We don't know how to fight. Come on. And we've got to begin. That's another. It's not just so I got the word in my heart. I got the word in my heart. No, it's so that you can wield that sword. You can wield that sword, cut off the attacks of the evil one, and remove darkness. Come on, to win the battles. You're talking about, oh, and I'm thinking, as you're saying, people that are oppressed, that are depressed, suicidal rates through the roof right now, parents making horrific decisions for their children right now. So not only are we not free and fighting battles in our own personal life, we're losing the next generation. We don't know how to raise the next generation because we're not teaching them in this instruction of the Word of God. How would you encourage parents right now in raising their children according to the Word? Begin to, one, model it. They're going to do what they see. And so I believe the greatest hypocrisy is you're one thing on Sunday and you live different on Wednesday. So I think, one, emulate it until there's the desire and get the kids used to discerning the presence of the Holy Spirit. Invite them into it. I have gone on all kinds of routes. I got three daughters, all ages, and I've done different things from, let's do the Bible. I'll pay you.
Jesus rewards. All right, let's go. I love it. Let's go. Get through the book of Genesis. Get through the book of Genesis. And now, without even having to do it, my 14-year-old wakes up at 6 a.m. on her own, and she spends 30 minutes a day in the Word. I think she saw it. I think I challenged her in it. I got some people, other voices. Not just mine, because sometimes they tune out, Dad, and that's what Dad says. I get other voices. So I get community pushing them into the Word of God. And with a thousand voices, it pushes them. And now they're starting to say, my goodness, I'm experiencing peace, and it centralizes my day before I go to school. Would you pray right now? I want you to pray for people, because I felt the anointing the moment you began. We began to talk about the Bible as a sword, and the Word of God using, it is written, the Word of God as a sword to take the enemy out. Teach my kids, we'll pray on the way to school, and I will always give them a few moments in worship to think of scripture, because I tell them, as you pray scripture, your prayers are so much more powerful. And those that are listening right now, I just feel like I had a vision of those that are just weeping, listening to you share, that are bound in oppression, they're bound in depression, they're bound in so many of the things that you just... They're bound in comfortable Christianity. They're not living boldly for Jesus. They're not obsessed with Him and His Word.
Would you pray for that to break off of them, and for a hunger for God's Word and His presence to begin to stir within those listening? Father, I thank you right now for everyone listening. And Father, I plead your blood, and I just ask you for the Holy Spirit to fill every car, fill every bedroom, living room, walk, run, every place where you're sitting right now. And in the name of Jesus, I take authority over every demonic spirit, every lying spirit, tormenting spirit, accusing spirit. I break your power in the name of Jesus. Every spirit of heaviness, I break your power. Every spirit of oppression, I break your power. Every lying devil, every suicidal voice, I shut your mouth in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Every lie concerning body image, I break your power in the name of Jesus. Every comparison, I break your power in the name of Jesus. Father, I pray right now that you would crack off, that you would break off all bondage, oppression, heaviness, all gray clothes, break them off in the name of Jesus. And I just say, Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus, come forth, come out of darkness, come out of bondage, and come into clarity, come into light, and take up your sword. Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. I declare that the Word of God in your mouth is strong. I declare that the Word of God in your mouth is mighty and powerful. And I plead your blood, and I pray for a deliverance and a freedom. I pray for every sexual spirit to be delivered in the name of Jesus. I pray for everything that you're listening to to be shut off. God, I pray that you would talk to people about shutting off the televisions. I pray that you would shut it off. I pray that there would be social media apps that would be deleted. I pray that there would be people that they would begin to distance themselves from. And I pray that we would come out of the counsel of the ungodly, and that we would come into
the meditation and the delight in the Word of God. I pray that new conversations with the Word would begin. I pray for delight and fascination around the Word to increase. God, I pray that you would deliver us from boredom. God, I pray that we would break through to the man on the other side of the pages. God, I pray that we would be lost in your Word, that we would be awakened in your Word, that we would be sustained in your Word. I ask you to release this in the name of Jesus, wash us, inflame us, awaken us, and set us on fire by the power of your word. Do it, I pray, in the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. I want to close with this. I want to ask you, what do you feel will prophetically happen if there is not an awakening in the body of Christ in their word and knowing their word? What's going to happen? We're going to fall away. There's going to be a great falling away. It's the anchor. It's the plumb line. It's the pillar of truth. It's everything. Lawlessness will break out. Complete mixture in the church because we have no other voice and we're being driven by all the other voices. We don't know truth because we don't know his word, so all we drink is lies. At the end of the day, it's going to be complete falling away for the church if we do not get a revival in the Bible. First Corinthians 10, 12, so the one who thinks he is standing firm, take heed lest he fall. Remember, taking heed means to stay awake. The way that we stay awake is by living according to the word of God.
I want to encourage those that are listening right now, what does this practically look like with everything that is happening, with the noise, with social media, media, the events, everything that's happening all the time? It means it takes intentionality on your part, a consecration, a pulling away on purpose, a turning off, your phone completely turned off, computers completely closed, social media, TVs turned off, that you are intentional about separating yourself, that nobody gets this time, that this is the number one priority. If you miss a business call, hear me, if you miss a business call, if you miss the client, but you had time with the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, creator of the heavens and the earth, you had time in a living word that shifts, that change, that has power and authority to heal, to take away, to add, to do and fill any and every single void that is currently in your life. I would encourage you that you do not trade this time with the Lord and in his word for anything or for anybody, but that you would daily feast on this bread. And I'm telling you, watch and see the fruit, just like the parable of the sower and the fourth, watch and see the hundred fold, the 60 fold, the 30 fold, where the Holy Spirit comes and meets you. He comes and breathes on that word. He comes and does in your life what you could have never have done in your own strength because you prioritized the bridegroom. You prioritized his words and you walked them out and you lived a life according to his truth and his ways. I pray that today, this episode of Holy Disruption encourages you, but doesn't just encourages you. I pray it disrupted you, that it empowers you to change and to grow spiritually, to know him more. I'll see you on the next episode of Holy Disruption. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Holy Disruption, where we are awakening the bride of Christ and calling the church back to holiness. If you'd like to continue with me on this journey, follow me on social at Heather Shaw
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